Boston Flower & Garden Show an effusion of color, design

This week’s Boston Flower & Garden Show drew many who are itching to dig in the dirt after being snowed under for most of the past month. Amid the calla lilies and roses, Donna Fernandes of Middleboro took a deep breath, smiled and said, “It’s just great after the winter we had.”...

By Alice C. Elwell

The Herald News, Fall River, MA

By Alice C. Elwell

Posted Mar. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 16, 2013 at 4:04 PM

By Alice C. Elwell

Posted Mar. 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 16, 2013 at 4:04 PM

BOSTON

» Social News

This week’s Boston Flower & Garden Show drew many who are itching to dig in the dirt after being snowed under for most of the past month.

Amid the calla lilies and roses, Donna Fernandes of Middleboro took a deep breath, smiled and said, “It’s just great after the winter we had.”

Others, like Fernandes’ daughter, Denise Petronelli, made the trek to the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston to see what East Freetown landscaper Peter Sadeck was up to this year. Sadeck, whose business address is in Lakeville, came through with another lush design, complete with his signature birds and an antique stone fountain imported from England.

Petronelli, daughter-in-law of the late Goody Petronelli, towed her mother and sister, Dawn McSherry, of Plymouth to the show for some “hardscape” ideas for the pool area in her antique Cape in Middleboro.

“I had to come to Boston to find him,” said Petronelli as she made a beeline for Sadeck’s exhibit. “It’s a good way to start spring.”

Sadeck and his wife, Maria, showcased neighboring exhibits. Maria Sadeck applied her interior design talents to create an outside room that mimics an oasis, surrounding a pergola topped with antique stained glass windows in front of a gazing pool.

The Sadecks prepared their exhibits all winter, forcing flowering shrubs, trees and potted plants at Roseland Nursery in Acushnet.

Peter Sadeck framed his garden with twin 20-foot Bradford pear trees in full bloom and splashed color from a variety of ornamental shrubs and flowers. Birdsong from parrots and cranes filled the air as the fountain tinkled with sparkling water.

The Sadecks joked about the number of birds, and ultimately agreed he keeps about 100 birds in his East Freetown aviary.

Petronelli was enchanted with the Sadecks’ exhibits, and while she thought Peter Sadeck’s birds were beautiful, she’s not ready to add an exotic flock to her backyard. Instead, Petronelli said she’s hoping to incorporate her backyard hens into a landscape design. “I have 10 chickens. Maybe there’s a better way to show them off,” she said, adding that she plans to ask the Sadecks to design a patio area around her pool this spring.

The Sadecks admitted they don’t have many customers from their immediate region, saying they travel everywhere between Boston and Martha’s Vineyard to design and maintain gardens. They said most of their neighbors in Lakeville and Freetown prefer to do their own gardening.

Peter Sadeck, who was raised in New Bedford, developed a green thumb at an early age and cultivated it a Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton. He said he’s entered the show for nearly 20 years and has lost count of the awards he’s won.

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Kenneth Jardin, co-owner of Crystal Brinson Horticulturist, of Fairhaven, collaborated with Westport’s Quintessential Gardens to design an exhibit that featured grottos, a goddess and bluestone planters surrounded by plantings that were entirely organically grown.

“There was no chemicals at all,” Jardin said. Pests were eradicated with ladybugs, and the fertilizer was natural, he said.

The garden embraced the stone goddess, “From maiden to mother,” a fecund woman’s form that served as a reminder of nature’s bounty. She was flanked by a riot of color from a camellia in full flower that was forced into bloom at Kenny’s Greenhouse in Fairhaven.

Jardin pointed to the flaming red sprays from a crabapple tree that were set off by deep lush greenery, and said “Crystal has a background in painting that she takes to the garden.”